[Gusto Brunt]

So there's this campaign going about now, which is saying don't take medicines you don't need.

You may have heard the radio campaign, saying don't take antibiotics you don't need.

But excuse me, but what the hell does that mean??????????????

Who would take antibiotics they don't need???? Who does that??

Like my friend who has been on Ventolin inhaler for 5 years, only takes 2-5 puffs a week, he got a letter from his doctor telling him not to use the Inhaler more than he needs it. Like WHO DOES THAT??? You only take the puffs you require, right??

Pleae help me here. It's all very confusing.

[bitontheslide]

The more antibiotics are used, the more resistance is built up against them, so, a few misusing them can **** it up for everyone. The number of different types of antibiotic that we have is limited, and new varieties are not being generated quickly enough to continue to provide effective treatment, if people continue to use them at the current rate.

In reality, the biggest issue is not in taking them, it is in not finishing the entire prescribed course. If you kill the infection completely within your body, its fine, the job has been done. If you only take part of the course and the infection survives, it builds up resistance.

[GoldHeart]

Originally Posted by Gusto Brunt

So there's this campaign going about now, which is saying don't take medicines you don't need.

You may have heard the radio campaign, saying don't take antibiotics you don't need.

But excuse me, but what the hell does that mean??????????????

Who would take antibiotics they don't need???? Who does that??

Like my friend who has been on Ventolin inhaler for 5 years, only takes 2-5 puffs a week, he got a letter from his doctor telling him not to use the Inhaler more than he needs it. Like WHO DOES THAT??? You only take the puffs you require, right??

Pleae help me here. It's all very confusing.

Well it's got to a point where people are confused about what they should and shouldn't take. If you're prescribed medication for a medical condition then yes you follow the guidelines .

But it's not just people who are on regular medication, it's people who might get a headache or suffering from an injury for e.g which will go away but they might be prescribed the wrong thing .

And there's things like anti depressants that you need to be careful of and same goes for Cocodamel & ibuprofen and any pain killer . You don't want to get addicted to those pills .

Sadly even the great talented celebrities have gone done the prescription drug route and overdosed, due to stress and other factors .

And I don't like the sound of sleeping pills either as people seem to rely too much on them and it's a slippery slope . And you've got to be wary of mixing alcohol .

If I can't sleep I would rather drink a hot drink or listen to music, medication ISN'T always the answer and that's the point .

And even doctors get it wrong and are sometimes too quick to prescribe you something you don't necessarily need .

So I would make sure you 100% need it and not just want it for the sake of it or for some quick fix .

[smudgie]

The advertising campaign is mainly about the over use of ant-biotics.
Go to the doc with a cold...ask for anti-biotics
Viral infection
The over use of anti-biotics can deem them useless for when we really need them.
I have a lovely cocktail of meds I need everyday, and if I could do without them I would.
Unfortunately we don't realise the damage that side effects can do until it is too late.

[GoldHeart]

Originally Posted by smudgie

The advertising campaign is mainly about the over use of ant-biotics.
Go to the doc with a cold...ask for anti-biotics
Viral infection
The over use of anti-biotics can deem them useless for when we really need them.
I have a lovely cocktail of meds I need everyday, and if I could do without them I would.
Unfortunately we don't realise the damage that side effects can do until it is too late.

Yeah that's another problem the damn side effects . You have to be so careful though especially regarding alcohol and sometimes people even develope serious allergies due to medicines .

[RichardG]

i took eight months worth of antibiotics for a chest problem that lasted a year and one and a half years worth of antibiotics for acne

sorry guys i think i'm responsible for antibiotic resistance?

[LeatherTrumpet]

half the folk on tibb take pointless vitamins because some marketing department told them to

[Brillopad]

Originally Posted by bitontheslide

The more antibiotics are used, the more resistance is built up against them, so, a few misusing them can **** it up for everyone. The number of different types of antibiotic that we have is limited, and new varieties are not being generated quickly enough to continue to provide effective treatment, if people continue to use them at the current rate.

In reality, the biggest issue is not in taking them, it is in not finishing the entire prescribed course. If you kill the infection completely within your body, its fine, the job has been done. If you only take part of the course and the infection survives, it builds up resistance.

They are saying that is not the case now. Apparently not completing the course can be better. It sounds mad but there was something in the paper/on the news not long ago about it.

Found it.

https://www.sciencealert.com/experts...tics-after-all

[Brillopad]

Originally Posted by smudgie

The advertising campaign is mainly about the over use of ant-biotics.
Go to the doc with a cold...ask for anti-biotics
Viral infection
The over use of anti-biotics can deem them useless for when we really need them.
I have a lovely cocktail of meds I need everyday, and if I could do without them I would.
Unfortunately we don't realise the damage that side effects can do until it is too late.

This. It is antibiotics that are the issue.

[Vicky.]

Originally Posted by Brillopad

They are saying that is not the case now. Apparently not completing the course can be better. It sounds mad but there was something in the paper/on the news not long ago about it.

Found it.

https://www.sciencealert.com/experts...tics-after-all

Yeah I read this too. Doctors have always told me to finish the packet even if symptoms are gone. I had tonsillitis a ridiculous amount as a kid and was on antibiotics near constantly. I wonder sometimes if I am somewhat resistant to them because of this. Wish they had just taken my bloody tonsils out like I asked them to

[Vicky.]

Originally Posted by smudgie

The advertising campaign is mainly about the over use of ant-biotics.
Go to the doc with a cold...ask for anti-biotics
Viral infection
The over use of anti-biotics can deem them useless for when we really need them.
I have a lovely cocktail of meds I need everyday, and if I could do without them I would.
Unfortunately we don't realise the damage that side effects can do until it is too late.

My grandma was on about 30 different tablets at one stage. I went through them all and I swear she only actually needed like 10 of them. The rest were all countering each other. For example she was on warfarin to thin her blood, then on something else to thicken her blood. I mean, wheres the sense in that really...

I told her to get them reviewed by a doctor instead of just refilling the prescriptions. She died pretty soon after so I never knew if she asked the doc or not. But it should never have got to that stage tbh

[Fetch The Bolt Cutters]

that antibiotics song they always play on telly is a bop

[Fetch The Bolt Cutters]

Youtube video

[Brillopad]

Originally Posted by Vicky.

Yeah I read this too. Doctors have always told me to finish the packet even if symptoms are gone. I had tonsillitis a ridiculous amount as a kid and was on antibiotics near constantly. I wonder sometimes if I am somewhat resistant to them because of this. Wish they had just taken my bloody tonsils out like I asked them to

Antibiotics have saved billions of lives but it is the stupid people that insist on using them for every little sniffle and cold despite being told a million times that antibiotics don’t work on colds. Colds are caused by viruses and antibiotics don’t work on virus-based infections - only bacterial ones.

They are the ones that have caused this problem for everyone else. Makes me fume!

[arista]

Originally Posted by LeatherTrumpet

half the folk on tibb take pointless vitamins because some marketing department told them to

Not me LT.

[Vicky.]

You can't blame people surely, its doctors that are prescribing them when they arent needed..you can't just buy antibiotics

[bitontheslide]

Originally Posted by Vicky.

You can't blame people surely, its doctors that are prescribing them when they arent needed..you can't just buy antibiotics

Bit of both really, patients go in asking for them and rather than saying no, get over it in its own time, they have given them out for an easy life. The expectation for many years was to get some antibiotics from the doctor without regard to whether they were actually needed

[Vicky.]

Wow, my doctor would never give me something I did not need. I have to fight tooth and nail for stuff I do ****ing need

[Brillopad]

Originally Posted by Vicky.

You can't blame people surely, its doctors that are prescribing them when they arent needed..you can't just buy antibiotics

That’s true but I imagine with being under strict time constraints seeing patients it is easy to give into ‘problem’ patients that won’t listen just to get rid of them.

[Toy Soldier]

Yeah overuse / overprescription of antibiotics is a huge problem...causes resistant strains AND personal resistance to antibiotics. I personally say, if your body's natural immune system can beat something... Let it do it's job. People take antibiotics to speed up the process when their body could do it on its own given a few days longer. Antibiotics are amazing and save lives - so keep them for the situations where you just MIGHT need them to save your life, e.g. after major surgery, or if you're unlucky enough to get something like tuberculosis, septicaemia or an infection of a major organ.

Healthy adults (and even children older than about 5) really do not need antibiotics for every little throat or chest infection, even if it is bacterial.

I flat out refuse them these days, I had a heavy dose round of them when I was 22 and they killed off my gut bacteria and made me really, really ill. I was horrendously dehydrated and it's the only time I've ever called NHS24... Because I legit thought I was dying.

Couple of years ago I had strep (bad... Felt like swallowing shards of glass) and was told by the doctor that it would "definitely" wouldn't clear without antibiotics and he basically insisted on the prescription. I didn't collect it, and the infection cleared within 10 days . So I do think they're trigger happy with prescriptions.

[AnnieK]

Originally Posted by Vicky.

Wow, my doctor would never give me something I did not need. I have to fight tooth and nail for stuff I do ****ing need

My old doctor had more or less written a penicillin prescription before you had even closed the door only doctor ever to run appointments on time as he had you diagnosed whilst you sat in the waiting room

[DemolitionRed]

Originally Posted by Vicky.

Yeah I read this too. Doctors have always told me to finish the packet even if symptoms are gone. I had tonsillitis a ridiculous amount as a kid and was on antibiotics near constantly. I wonder sometimes if I am somewhat resistant to them because of this. Wish they had just taken my bloody tonsils out like I asked them to

You don’t personally become resistant from taking too many antibiotics. It’s the bacteria that is making you sick that’s resistant. We, as humans spread that resistant bacteria, so if you pick up a bug that resists antibiotics, its because the bug you picked up was already resistant. Everyone you pass that bug on to will also fail to respond to antibiotics, even if it’s the first time in their life that they’ve taken it.

The bug is resistant, not the person.

[DemolitionRed]

Originally Posted by Toy Soldier

Yeah overuse / overprescription of antibiotics is a huge problem...causes resistant strains AND personal resistance to antibiotics. I personally say, if your body's natural immune system can beat something... Let it do it's job. People take antibiotics to speed up the process when their body could do it on its own given a few days longer. Antibiotics are amazing and save lives - so keep them for the situations where you just MIGHT need them to save your life, e.g. after major surgery, or if you're unlucky enough to get something like tuberculosis, septicaemia or an infection of a major organ.

Healthy adults (and even children older than about 5) really do not need antibiotics for every little throat or chest infection, even if it is bacterial.

I flat out refuse them these days, I had a heavy dose round of them when I was 22 and they killed off my gut bacteria and made me really, really ill. I was horrendously dehydrated and it's the only time I've ever called NHS24... Because I legit thought I was dying.

Couple of years ago I had strep (bad... Felt like swallowing shards of glass) and was told by the doctor that it would "definitely" wouldn't clear without antibiotics and he basically insisted on the prescription. I didn't collect it, and the infection cleared within 10 days . So I do think they're trigger happy with prescriptions.

Yeah they kill off your good bacteria. In France, if you get a prescription for antibiotics, you also get pro-biotics to replenish the good gut flora but if you mention to a British doctor about taking something like acidophilus, they look at you like your mad. British doctors seldom support complementary medicine.

[DemolitionRed]

One of the worrying things now, especially with UTI's, is, one course of antibiotics isn't normally enough. More and more elderly people are going on to get sepsis even though they are being treated with antibiotics

[Ant.]

Antibiotics they're wonderful pills but don't ever think they'll cure all of your ills Caught a cold? Got the flu? Feeling under the weather? That'll be a virus, they can't make that better! Take them for the wrong thing that's dangerous to do when you really need them they could stop working for you So please don't end up paying the price! Always take your doctor's advice